Childbirth represented about 30 percent of pediatric hospital costs in 2016 yet constituted about 60 percent of pediatric hospitalizations that year, according to the AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #250: Costs of Pediatric Hospital Stays, 2016.
In fact, among all hospital inpatient stays between 2008 and 2012, the average hospital cost of pediatric stays had the highest growth rate (more than 6 percent annually).
In 2016, the average hospital cost for pediatric nonbirth stays was $13,400, compared with $8,900 for stays for complicated births and $1,200 for stays for uncomplicated births.
Other highlights include:
· Pediatric stays for the circulatory system had the highest average cost in 2016 ($56,300 per stay).
· The average cost for stays for complicated births was higher for stays with an expected payer of Medicaid than of private insurance ($9,700 vs. $8,300 per stay). In contrast, the average cost for stays for pediatric nonbirths was lower for stays with an expected payer of Medicaid than of private insurance ($12,600 vs. $14,200 per stay). The average cost for stays for uncomplicated births was similar across expected payers.
· Pediatric hospital stays for extreme immaturity or respiratory distress syndrome had the highest aggregate costs ($6.5 billion), accounting for nearly 14 percent of all pediatric inpatient costs but less than 2 percent of pediatric stays.
· Stays for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or tracheostomy with ventilator use greater than 96 hours (i.e., forms of life support) had the highest aggregate costs in 2016 among pediatric nonbirths ($1.94 billion). This represented 4 percent of all pediatric inpatient costs, but these types of stays totaled only 5,300 (0.1 percent of pediatric stays).
